Look What the Cat Dragged In
by o-9
Summary: A muggle-born student that finds her home in Hogwarts, but in her third year quickly finds out that it is not what she thinks. Between the Boy Who Lived disappeared and Snape running the school, it is quickly found out that she is a muggle-born, and it isn't well received.
1. The Promise

She had never been a normal person, but she was rather normal when she was born in London, England, in a small hospital to Muggle parents (of course she didn't know they were muggles at the time, but later she found out they were).

There had been some of the usual signs when she was young, cookies coming out of the cookie jar when her parents had said no, but she always got blamed for sneaking in the jar for them. Then, she adopted a cat when she was five, and her parents decided he was an outdoor cat. One day, the cat came inside for the night and ran straight for the young girl, and she squealed in delight as he dropped something in front of her. Normally he found her lost toys or stuffies but this time he brought a new toy. And it even moved on its own. He puts his paw on it to keep it from moving before the little girl picked it up.

"Mummy! Mummy! Look what Crookshanks brought me! A fairy!" she exclaimed, running over to her mum, with the thing in her childlike firm grip.

"But sweet, that isn't your toy, we have to find the owner of that."

Her mother kneeled to her daughter's height and noticed that the fairy is wiggling all around trying to get away.

"Ben," she calls, "Would you come here a minute?"

The father comes out of the drawing room and comes over to the two of women,, "What is it, dear?" he looked down at what was between the tyke's fingers, and kept looking, not processing what it was.

"A fairy, she says. Crookshanks brought it in apparently."

The parents talked and talked, taking the fairy (who had started talking gibberish) and sent their daughter to bed. Later it was found out that they took pictures and video of the fairy, then released her.

However the next few months brought the parents searching everywhere for an answer as to how that cat found a fairy. They called supernatural offices and did whatever research they could. They even tried finding the shop that they had gotten the cat from (which had strangely disappeared). Nothing. Nothing. They tried contacting continental supernatural investigators and even they said that they simply faked the videos, and that fairies didn't exist. Meanwhile, Crookshanks didn't bring anything else magical into the house. But that's also because he wasn't allowed out of the house.

One morning, several days before the girls 6th birthday, there was a knock on the heavy front wooden door, and nanny answered it, revealing a tall man, well, the young girl thought, a very tall and not very wide Santa, but it wasn't Christmas surely?

"Good evening," He made a slight bow of his head to the nanny, when suddenly his eyes lighted upon the small form slightly outside of the foyer, "May I come in? My name is Professor Dumbledore, I was contacted about a," was it just her or was there a twinkle in Santa's Professor Dumbledore's eye? "about a pest problem?"

The nanny knew he was talking about what Crookshanks found, so she led him in, and bade him wait for Mr. and Mrs. Smith.. After that she took the girl upstairs to her room, and bade her play with her dolls before dinner.

(Mrs. Smith's POV)

"Hello," the tall man bowed his head as I came in with my husband, "My name is Professor Dumbledore, I apologize for coming so unexpectedly, I only just found out about your situation an hour ago."

Where would he have been if he only found out an hour ago? Either way, this man was dressed much like all the other professionals that they had seen that told them they were liars and crazies.

"Really, Mr. Dumbledore, we don't want to be hearing the same thing everyone else has been telling us. We accept that what we saw was not true, that it must have just been too late at night and too many glasses of wine -"

"Oh no, Mrs. Smith, you misunderstand, I am not here to deny what you saw, in fact, I'm sure the fairy that was in your house was very, very real. I was, expectantly, more interested as to why you still know that it was a fairy that which you saw. You see, most people like you would have had their memories Obliviated by now."

"Our minds what?" My husband spoke up, cocking his head to the side, "Might I remind you, that you are in the home of a -"

"I am well aware what you do as a profession, sir, However that does not change the fact that you are a Muggle," he paused, most likely waiting for us to ask what a mug-whatever was, but as we just stared at him, he sighed and looked around the room, a slight smile on his face.

"I think this would be better sitting, and perhaps with drinks?"

From his coat he pulled a stick, and waved it a bit so as the chairs in the room rearranged themselves behind all of us and drinks appeared. . . out of thin air! Oh I must me dreaming, could I be?

"Ahh, much better," the strange man took a sip of the drink and smiled at us over his half-moon spectacles, "Now, where were we?"

My voice came out, soft, and very unlike how it usually was, or maybe it wasn't me at all, this was a dream after all, "You were inquiring about us being, I don't know what you said, Muggles?"

He nodded his head slowly, "Yes, yes, Muggles, or non-magical people, not a term of endearment, but not to cast you off either," he took another sip of the liquid.

"I am sure you are wondering why you being a muggle would be a problem with you knowing about fairies," Ben and I looked at each other, "Well, it turns out, you would find out about fairies, and every other magical creature anyways, because of your child, the lovely one I saw when I first came in here."

That eye twinkle was there again and I tensed, "Don't talk about (Y/n) like that, you are sick for speaking that way about a child."

Mr. Dumbledore looked taken aback for a second, but then resumed his calm demeanor and continued as if I hadn't said anything, "The thing is, you child is magical, and when she turns eleven, she will get a letter in the mail, asking her to come to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, of which I am Headmaster. In the meantime, you must keep this knowledge to yourselves, and must not share it with anyone."

And with a pop he was gone, and I kept waiting to wake up from the dream, but the days kept going like usual.

(Third-Person POV)

Her body convulsed with the pain, and she felt rather than heard the agonizing scream rip through her. She begged and begged for it to stop, but each time she begged, a new bout of pain came on.

It went on for what felt like an eternity, and she eventually stopped screaming, because she was so hoarse nothing was coming out. There were no tears, because there was simply nothing left. And after a while she just laid there, not being able to move, unsure if the curse was still being used on her or if they had stopped, because at some point the pain just all melded together, and she couldn't be certain if she was feeling the pain of one curse or of three.

Suddenly there was a shadow standing over her and she looked up (that also felt like it took an eternity) into the eyes of Pansy Parkinson.

"Learned your lesson yet, Mud-Blood filth?"

Her eyes flitted to the green and silver tie around Pansy's neck, the same that was currently on her, and she swore to herself that if she made it through this, she would become the most powerful Slytherin wizard, but she wouldn't do it the way He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has, no, she would infiltrate the system, and she would make everyone who stood in this room and spit on her today pay. But, she had to be cunning, just like her house should be.

"Yes."


	2. Obliviate

A/N: Hey guys! Sorry I haven't updated this. I changed the story from being a reader insert to having an actual protaganist, so I hope you don't mind. Please comment/review if you would like me to change it back! Also! I have a new HP fic that gets updated way more often. It is called The Gift, and I think you would all really enjoy it. Hope you enjoy. XO

7-13-94

It was only five years after meeting Dumbledore that the Smith's got another visit from him. In that time, they saw Aleah doing the usual things as one grows. Learning how to put outfits together (although at 11 she still wasn't very good at it) and sentence structure. Even maths and history were interesting her. And of course the occasional levitating of the cat. Wait, what? Every time it happen Mr. and Mrs. Smith were reminded of the fictional person that popped into their house for a half hour that had levitated drinks in the middle of their living room.

When the letter came from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry they both nearly fainted, but instead encouraged Aleah to open it and see what was inside. When she read it aloud to them they hugged and congratulated her. Soon there was a sharp knock on the door, and Mr. Smith went to open it.

Standing in the doorway was a black clad man, his hair greasy and hanging limp against the sides of his face. Which, was turned up into a sneer.

"I am here to collect Ms. Smith, for Hogwarts," he spoke in a clipped tone.

Mr. Smith moved to block more of the doorway, "Is this some kind of joke? She's eleven, I'm not sending her away with some strange man."

The man let out an annoyed sigh, procuring from his billow robes a letter, with the same seal as Aleah's letter had.

"My name is Severus Snape, Dumbledore said you would be less than willing to hand her over, so he sent this letter with me."

Mr. Smith looked at the letter mistrustfully, but took it and split it open, quickly reading the contents. He eyed Severus for a little while longer before stepping aside and allowing him in.

Severus looked around the home with disdain before following Mr. Smith to where Aleah and Mrs. Smith were in the living room. He respectfully shook Mrs. Smith's hand and nodded in Aleah's direction.

"Dear, this letter says that Aleah is to go early, since she doesn't live in a magical household. She apparently needs to go to a magic neighborhood to get all her school supplies."

Mrs. Smith nodded, "Well, I'm sure that she can go for a little while. As long as she's back by tomorrow night, I don't see why this man can't take her."

"No," Mr. Smith shook his head, eyes widening a bit, "No, they mean until the start of the semester."

And then Mr. Smith handed her the letter, where she read it, and her faced drained of color.

"But why? She surely would be able to stay here for a time, couldn't she?"

"I'm afraid the Headmaster has made it clear to me that she cannot," Severus replied.

Mr. Smith made eye contact with Severus and his eyes seemed to get a little cloudy. He turned to his wife and draped an arm over her shoulders.

"It won't be that bad, love, we'll still see her during holiday."

Mrs. Smith smiled at her husband, wrapping an arm around his waist, "If you think it is a good idea, then let's do it."

Aleah looked at her parents like they were crazy, "You're just going to send me away?"

"We can't really help you Aleah, this letter from Dumbledore says you have to be accompanied by a wizard or witch in the magical world. We can't do anything about that," Mrs. Smith truly looked apologetic, before her eyes became slightly clouded over also.

"Now, sweetie, why don't you go pack your things up? I'm sure Severus could help you move things along."

Aleah looked between her parents and Severus before storming out of the room and up the stairs. Severus walked after her, taking his time to look at the pictures on the wall and take in what he was seeing. He knocked on what he was sure was her room, and when he didn't hear anything barged in anyway. The room wasn't necessarily frilly, but it was a girls room, and with a slight pang he remembered sneaking into a room similar to this late at night when he was a boy. He pushed the thought from his head and his eyes sought out the girls crying form on her bed.

Severus sneered, there was nothing he hated more than emotional students, but regardless, he walked towards her; uncertain of what to do, he put a hand on her shoulder. She let out a sob, and then another and another, until he was sure that she had soaked through her mattress already, but he kept his hand there. He remembered his mother, then and how when he had been very young, rubbed circles with her thumb. So that was what he started to do, clumsily at first, then slowly getting into the rhythm of it. Soon her crying subsided until all that was left was her shaking, and she sat up to look at Severus, her blue eyes red and shiney from the tears.

"Are you really here to take me away?" she asked.

Severus was very aware that he had yet to move his hand, and was about to pull it away when the child did the most unexplainable thing. She hugged him, her arms wrapping around his waist, and burying her face in his robes. He awkwardly let his arms settle around her, gingerly patting her on the back. When she let go he almost wished she hadn't.

"You do have to come with me. It isn't safe right now for you to be going anywhere with Muggles. Things are starting to become restless."

Aleah nodded, her hair, a nice strawberry blonde, Severus noticed, being brushed to the side as she got up to get a bag from her closet. Severus then stood, pulling out his wand.

He pointed it at the bag and silently said something. The bag glowed for a second, then he pointed his wand again and it glowed a different color.

"Open it," he said, his voice in its usual clipped tone.

Aleah opened it and looked inside, confused.

"Keep it open and don't move."

Then Severus flicked his wand and it seemed like the whole room was stuffed into the bag. Aleah's eyes widened, the bag shouldn't have fit everything she owned, and it certainly didn't feel like it did.

Severus pulls a few random objects from his robes, a yo-yo, a broken pencil, a plastic water bottle, and matching cap. He said something at the yo-yo and it turned into a dresser, which was put against the wall. The pencil turned into a bed, and the water bottle and cap turned into a desk and chair. All together, it looked like a nice guest bedroom. Aleah furrowed her brow at him but he turned and left, robes billowing out behind him, and barked for her to follow.

Soon she had said goodbye to her parents, and was told by Severus to wait outside, when he came back his eyes were harder than they had been before and he gripped Aleah's shoulder harder than necessary.

"If you feel the need to puke, we will be right next to the bathroom. Please use the toilet and not the floor."

And then Aleah felt like she was being squeezed through a tight tube.


End file.
